Social Welfare Minister Sanni Grahn-Laasonen, who said recently that she would ban children from using the niqaba and burka at school, blamed poor integration of foreigners into the labor market for high unemployment and welfare levels.
Even if Grahn-Laasonen places the blame on foreigners for not finding work, we should treat her words with tweezers and suspicion. She is not interested in foreigners getting work, should be seen as just another way for the government to punish migrants and minoirities.
“In other words,” she was quoted as saying in MTV, “we need to improve integration so that immigrants can find employment as quickly as possible and also have access to education. For example, the long periods of childcare allowance could be shortened, and we have two reforms underway in my department related to this.”
Social Welfare Minister Sanni Grahn-laasonen. How can a politician like GrahnLaasonen look after th migrants’ best interests if she wants to ban children from using the niqab and burka at school and shorten childcare allowance? Source: MTV.
When tightening immigration policy, ministers like Grahn-Laasonen turn to other Nordic countries.
“For example, the long periods of childcare allowance could be shortened, and we have two changes in the law underway in my department related to this: the preparation of integration support,” she continued. “[One of the changes] is the reform of childcare allowance based on the Norwegian model. which requires three years of residence to receive childcare allowance. The aim is to get immigrant mothers into work and, on the other hand, to get children into early childhood education to learn the language and get the best possible start to their school career.”
One of the challenges to these types of reforms is if they are constitutional.
If only immigration and adaptation were that simple, Grahn-Laasonen. Taking into account the austerity measures and the ideology behind such cutbacks, Grahn-Laasonen incorrectly believes that doing away with social support will bully people into working. Instead of offering more language courses, why not start by tackling the xenophobic atmosphere? One of the matters that is usually missing in these “ingenious” integration measures is how racism and labor discrimination impact unemployment.
Even if the latest reforms aim to promote what the minister calls “good integration,” they will fall flat on their faces because the government aims to make the lives of migrants as difficult as possible.
